The image is based on a watercolour by French artist Jean-Pierre Houël ‘Storming of the Bastille’. This was an event that occurred in Paris, France on the afternoon of 14 July 1789, when revolutionaries stormed and seized control of the medieval armoury, fortress and political prison known as the Bastille. At the time, the Bastille represented royal authority and tyranny in the centre of Paris. The prison contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution which eventually led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the First French Republic.